E&E Publishing reporter, Julia Pyper, recently
interviewed SSC President Jennifer Woofter for her article, “64 companies
follow Wal-Mart’s efforts to reduce suppliers’ emissions.”Her article highlights the challenges that
suppliers to Wal-Mart stores face while trying to meet the sustainability reporting
requirements set by the large retailer.She reports that the process of calculating emissions in the supply
chain is currently riddled with complexity which can cause suppliers to spend
a tremendous amount of time and capital in order to evaluate their carbon
footprint.

“Suppliers are suffering from survey fatigue,” Jennifer
Woofter said. “One of the biggest challenges is that these companies have to
develop a way to gather emissions data, not just with respect to their own
operations but to their suppliers', too. They have to aggregate the data and
present it in a meaningful way. Then they are expected to act on it.”

Jennifer further added, “The issue is made worse by
the fact that big multinational corporations often aren't clear about why they
want a Scope 3 emissions assessment in the first place and how they're going to
engage in the cleanup effort, she said. If companies overwhelm their suppliers
with survey requests without setting a larger goal and playing a part in
helping them reduce emissions, the entire process could yield little besides
more work.

She cautions companies to think carefully about the
cost and benefits before starting a supply chain initiative, and to ask the
following questions: How is this going
to build a better product? How will it improve the entire value chain?